A new beggining
by DarkF4s
Summary: Raven leaves the Teen Titans and embarks on a journey, that will teach her the value of friends and love in her life.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: A new story begins! This one is planned to be a long project, with weekly updates or something like that. A word of warning: this story will be packed with my own characters. The names and powers ofmy charactersare products of my own ideas and my knowledge. Any and all similarities with any other characters in other fanfics or stories are purely accidental. So don't bother accusing me of stealing your characters, as I haven't read your story. :)

Disclaimer: Since this is gonna be a long fic (I hope), this is the first and last time there'll be a full disclaimer in this story. I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING EXCEPT FOR THE PLOT! This will be true for all the other chapters as well.

And now, let's get down to business!

* * *

_**Dreams Of A New Dawn**_

How much time had passed since she had smiled for the last time? Days, weeks, months? For her it felt like she hadn't felt happy for many millennia. Although Raven never was the type that would just go out and relax with her friends, even in her solitude she had found times to forget about her curse, her constant problems with her emotions and be at least a bit like all the other teens. She had even smiled from time to time. For most of the people this would seem strange and freaky, but in her case it was a rare event. Her smile was one of the most beautiful ones that the world has ever seen, but because her powers were in constant threat of getting out of control she couldn't allow herself to feel too much.

She never really knew what was the reason for her to smile. When she had joined the Teen Titans some years ago she had sworn a life devoid of any feelings. But she had found out that in the company of the four teen superheroes she didn't have to pretend being a cruel and uncaring person. At least not all the time. She had adopted sarcasm to fight off all signs of enthusiasm within her. But a couple of times…very rarely…she had smiled. She was happy. Although the shadows of her hood managed to hide any expression of happiness on her face, deep inside her heartshe was happy sometimes.

She had smiled when her teammates were fighting over childish things, like who was the better player of video games, or if tofu counted as real food. She had enjoyed living with them, although sometimes they bothered her more than some family members could bother you. But in overall she had enjoyed their company.

So why did she leave them? She had a safe place to live, food and drink, a place to rest, some fun and she was a highly regarded superhero. Defenders of Jump City, as they were often called by the citizens who lived under their protection. Everyone loved them, everyone wanted to be like them. But something was always missing in her life. There was always a hollow space in her soul that no amount of victories, celebrations could fill. She needed more than that from life. Not even her friends were able to replace the emptiness within her. She needed someone's love. She wanted to be loved, just like any other teen. But she had never experienced what is it like to love and be loved. There had been a couple of times when she thought that she was in love. Of course she had never told about her feelings anyone, but she there were times when she had thought that she was in love. First there was Beast Boy. As annoying and stupid as he could get at times he was the first one to catch her attention. He was always there for her, trying to make her happy. But the problem with him was that he didn't really know when to stop. No matter how much she had yelled at him to leave her alone for a while he continued to stay around her. At times this was lovely, but at other times…well, she had lost her patience. And after the accident with Terra Raven knew that the blonde girl would forever remain his true love. Just as he couldn't give up on making her happy he couldn't give up his hopes for reviving her.

Then after some time she had found a book in which had resided her second love in her life. An ancient dragon, Malchior. Unfortunately, this love almost turned into a disaster as her had abused the girl's trust to get into the real world. After defeating him she had felt her heart broken. The pain of being abandoned by someone whom she had thought to be the chosen one for her seemed unbearable. For a long time she tried to keep her mind off her emotions. But as it is with emotions, you can never truly control them. Especially when it comes to love.

Her third and last love had been Robin. The leader of the team seemed to be the perfect one. He had the same kind of darkness in his soul and he was fully devoted to his team. He had saved her life many times in the past and he was the only reason why five teens with so different lives and behaviours could remain a team. He was the force that had kept them together for years. He knew when was the time to have fun and when did they have to concentrate on fighting villains. But…his heart belonged to another. Raven had always suspected that he was in love with the other girl on the team: Starfire. When the two of them finally confessed their love she was happy for them. She had congratulated as well. But behind her smile she was hurt more than the others could know.

But the pain had passed in time, just as all the pain had. However the empty space in her soul, in her life still remained. She was still searching for the safety of someone's embrace. And as she knew that she couldn't find peace amongst the Teen Titans she had left them. She apologized for everything she had ever said to them that might have hurt them. She had even admitted that Beast Boy was funny. But instead of a "victory-dance" the green shapeshifter remained shocked. Her friends tried to convince her to stay with them. But as they realized, that they couldn't say anything to make her stay, they let her go. After all she was a free person and she could go anywhere she wanted to. Saying goodbye was a lot more painful for Raven than she had imagined so many times before. She had never realized how much did this weird team mean to her. During the goodbye hugs she had even cried a bit, something that she tried to hide from her friends on so many occasions before. But the thought of leaving her past and everything she had known and held dear behind her forced the tears out of her eyes.

After leaving the Teen Titans she had traveled for some days. She had regretted her choice many times during that time. She had felt hollow before, but now her life seemed to be absolutely meaningless. She had no purpose. She wanted to go back and laugh at Beast Boy's lame jokes and go to the 'mall-of-shopping' with the Tamaranian girl. But the longer she continued to travel the distance seemed to become greater between her and the Titans.

"Maybe they had already found someone to replace me. Robin surely wouldn't allow the team to be weakened. I wonder whom did they find. Probably a girl. Starfire would hang out with her. She could finally have a friend that she could to talk to about all the usual 'girl-stuff'. Hmm, what kind of powers would the girl have?" Raven was thinking about all the possible powers that she could name. The most reasonable seemed to be another teen with telekinetic powers as Raven's powers had been fundamental in many of the tactics of the Teen Titans.

"I wonder if they miss me. I sure miss them a lot." she thought as she decided to rest on the roof of one of the houses. The city was unfamiliar to her, but reminded her a bit of Jump City in its design. She landed on the roof of the flat and walked to its ledge. She sat down on it and looked at the streets underneath her. As it was already night the streets were almost deserted, just some cars passing through the empty streets. Raven sighed, as she felt lonely again. So far from her friends, without a shelter, without anyone to comfort her. A gentle breeze brushed her face and she closed her eyes to enjoy the moment. She calmed down a bit. Suddenly an alarm went off in her vicinity and she immediately stood up to see what had happened. A loud explosion was heard and a strange figure ran out of one of the buildings. Raven instantly recognized the villain. It was Mumbo Jumbo, the self-proclaimed magician who used his magical powers to steal.

"Doesn't this guy ever give up?" she thought as she levitated up in the air.

Although she was alone she was still a superhero and as such it was her duty to stop the criminals, no matter what were the odds. She began to chase the magician as he ran with inhuman speed away from the robbed jewelry store.

A voice in her memory came back as she remembered the two words that she had gotten so used to in the past few years.

"Titans, go." she whispered to herself sadly, but in the next moment she concentrated on the task at hand. She had to stop Mumbo Jumbo all by herself.

* * *

A/N: Okay, so this is the beginning. Y'know, some explanation of the basic situation. The new characters will appear in the next chapter. If you want to find out who are they gonna be: REVIEW:) 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry that it took me so long to update, but I had quite a lot of stuff to do this week and I had almost no inspiration.

Disclaimer is the same.

* * *

_**Friends or Enemies?**_

Mumbo Jumbo was speeding through the streets of the city, Raven flying silently behind him.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Raven chanted and two parked cars were thrown in Mumbo Jumbo's way. He stopped and turned around to see the cause of the annoyance. His face almost lit up as he recognized the dark Titan.

"Aaah, and audience to witness my next great feat of magic!" he said and took off his hat. A giant toy rabbit flew out of it at great speed, but Raven managed to teleport away from danger and reappeared behind Mumbo Jumbo. In the next moment she shot a beam of black energy at the magician who was knocked by it into the wall of a nearby building. Raven wanted to shoot at him again, but a long rope rising from a nearby mailbox tied her up. The magician smiled evilly as the dark girl was immobilized.

"And now, for the grand finale! Hocus, pocus!" Mumbo Jumbo shouted and an iron maiden appeared out of thin air next to him. Raven's eyes widened with fear as the iron maiden opened and revealed thousands of sharp nails within. It began to close in on her, opening and closing as a hungry mouth that wanted to devour its victim. But just in the moment when it would've closed around Raven it suddenly exploded. Raven opened her eyes and looked in disbelief at the pile of wood and metal that was supposed to kill her. She was puzzled. She couldn't have done it, and looking at the surprised magician it was easy to guess that he didn't destroy it either.

"Rescued another damsel in distress. Man I'm good!" a voice was heard. It was a boy's voice, with strong Spanish accent. Raven, although still wrapped in the rope, turned towards the source of the voice. She saw a tall figure, wearing a long black coat that reached the ground. He wore a sleeveless shirt, elegant black pants and boots. He had long black hair, brown eyes and a huge grin on his face. He held a silvery pistol in his right hand. Smoke was rising from the barrel of the gun.

"I'm sorry, children, but the time for autographs is over." Mumbo Jumbo said evilly, as tons of paper with his autograph started to fly at the figure from Mumbo Jumbo's sleeves. But as the paper sheets were about to reach the unwelcome guest of his show a loud shout was heard. From behind the dark figure ran out another. This one was just as tall as the previous one, but he was a lot more muscular. He wore large pieces of metallic golden armor and held a large round shield in his left hand. He had short blond hair and blue eyes. He flung a javelin at the magician. The javelin pierced the wall of paper, still flying towards the two boys with ease and thanks to Mumbo Jumbo's attempt to dodge the javelin, it 'just' scratched the magicians face, leaving a long bleeding scar. The paper sheets instantly disappeared as the villain lost his control of the magic for a moment. Now he looked at the other boy and hate was clearly seen in his eyes.

"You are going to pay dearly for this!" he said, with anger in his voice.

"I don't think so." yet another voice was heard, but it was much more like a whisper, or the sound of the breeze. Mumbo Jumbo turned around and there stood the third person, but this one was different. It seemed to be a girl, but she was almost invisible, only a barely visible image of her levitated in front of him. She touched the magicians face with her hands, and the 'great' Mumbo Jumbo instantly collapsed and started shaking. The girl just smiled at him and flew over to the boys. The battle was over.

"Nice job, Ghost! You really showed him this time!" the boy in black said happily, with his Spanish accent. The group turned towards Raven. She stood there still tied up.

"And what about her?" the boy wearing the golden armor asked. His voice was very deep and manly.

"I say we free her. It seems that she isn't the friend of our little 'maestro'. Besides, I bet that those ropes are kinda uncomfortable." the boy with the Spanish accent said. The armored boy went to Raven and pulled out a golden sword. With a single slash of it the ropes were cut. Raven jumped back and readied herself for battle. The group was surprised by her reaction.

"Umm, we just rescued your life, I guess we deserve a bit nicer greeting than this." the Spanish boy said.

"That doesn't mean you aren't my enemies!" Raven cut back. The armored boy also prepared for battle, but the Spanish one came to him and with a wave of his hand he signaled the other one to lower his weapon.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Lorenzo." the Spanish boy said and bowed deeply before Raven. She was however unimpressed by his gallant ways.

"And the other ones?" Raven asked with a hostile voice, although she seemed to be a bit more at ease now.

"Name's Achilles." the armored boy said, but he continued to watch Raven for any sign of danger. He was prepared to attack at her first wrong move.

"Ghost." the girl said. She seemed to be absolutely uninterested in what was happening around her, her whispering voice almost as emotionless as Raven's.

"And what might your precious name be, darling?" Lorenzo asked Raven. She lowered her guard and looked with anger at the Spanish boy. His arrogance was irritating to the point that all she wanted to do was to throw him a couple of miles away with her powers. But for the moment she forgot her anger and decided to cooperate.

"Raven." she said with her usual monotonous voice. Lorenzo smiled again widely. Raven grunted with hatred. She turned around and wanted to leave, but a hand touched her shoulder. Raven immediately turned back. No one was ever allowed to touch her without her permission!

"Where do you think you're going?" Lorenzo asked the girl, still leaving his hand on the dark Titan's shoulder, unaware of the danger that he was in. He had invaded Raven's private space and that usually had catastrophic end for the intruders. But Raven now didn't want to fight him as he had saved her life. So she decided to forget about the boy's ignorance and instead of maiming the Spanish guy she just shook his hand off her shoulder.

"Anywhere I want!" she said angrily. In the next moment she was looking into the barrel of his gun.

"Sorry, but we can't let you go." Lorenzo said with a serious voice, his smile was gone. Raven sighed and a black aura surrounded the pistol in front of her. Before the boy could pull the trigger the pistol was torn out of his hand and thrown away.

"You've made a terrible mistake!" Raven said and with simple movement of her hand her telekinetic powers threw the unarmed guy away. Achilles, who was surprised by the sudden attack now rushed towards Raven, holding his sword high above him, ready strike at the dark girl.

"STOP!" a voice was heard. Both Raven and Achilles looked at the source of the voice. A figure walked out from the shadows of a nearby alley. She was completely covered in golden armor just as Achilles, but she had a helmet as well, that covered her head and face, with only small openings for the eyes. As she got close enough Raven saw that it was a girl, judging from the form of the breastplate, the gentle movements and the shape of her body. She held a long golden spear and had a bow that she carried on her back. On her left side she had a quiver of arrows. Achilles instantly bowed before the approaching figure and Raven also lowered her guard. Although the figure was heavily armed, Raven sensed that she didn't want to attack Raven.

"I presume you are the leader of this band of wannabe superheroes." Raven said sarcastically.

"Hey, who are you calling a…"Lorenzo tried to fend off Raven's obvious insult, but the new figure just looked at him and he closed his mouth. His face however showed clearly that he was deeply insulted, and partly ashamed because of his quick defeat.

"You presume correctly, Raven. I am their leader. And as their leader I advise you not to talk that way about us, as we pose a lot greater danger to you than you might realize." the armored girl said. Raven wasn't intimidated, but still knew that the leader was telling the truth and that she had great respect in the team.

"Alright. May I know who are you?" Raven asked respectfully. The leader took off her helmet. It really was a girl who had a beautiful face. She had long blonde hair and sky-blue eyes. She smiled kindly at Raven.

"My name is Minerva." she said.

* * *

A/N: Okay, that's it for today. Hope you liked it. :) There will be more coming soon, as the longest process for me was to create these new characters. Well, tell me what do you think. Reviews everyone! 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: New chapter's here. PLEASE, REVIEW!

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own the Teen Titans.

P.S.: Hugs and kisses to AnimationWickedRaven, Rosemage, Firenze2000, dark-spirit.

* * *

_**Just One Night**_

"Raven. Hmm, I've heard the news of your many victories against villains with the Teen Titans. How is it, that you're here?" Minerva asked, but before Raven could answer Lorenzo jumped into the conversation.

"She's supposed to be Raven? Yeah, right! She couldn't even catch Mumbo Jumbo and if we hadn't arrived she might have even died!" Lorenzo was shouting, his face completely red. Raven looked at him from under her hood and had to concentrate not to tear the boy apart in her anger.

"I'm Raven. And I DID NOT need your help. Everything was under control!" Raven struggled not to show too much hatred. Minerva saw that this argument could lead to injury, knowing that Raven's powers were one of the most dangerous in the world if they got out of control.

"Alright, stop it, both of you! We're on the same side, so stop behaving like little children! We will settle our conflicts back at the base!" Minerva said with a commanding voice. Lorenzo sighed and nodded, but Raven looked suspiciously at the leader of this…team.

"Sorry, but I have better things to do. So, if you don't mind, I'll leave now." Raven said. Minerva put her helmet back on.

"And where would you go? It's night and you're far from Jump City. It would be better if you stayed with us at least until the morning. After that you're free to go wherever you want." the girl in the golden armor said. Raven thought about the offer for a moment.

"Alright. But just one night." she finally answered. Minerva nodded.

"Ghost, it's time to go back!" Minerva said, turning away from Raven. She turned towards the teammate as well, and this was the first time she saw the strange girl. She wore a silvery robe that reached the ground. Ghost's face and eyes were absolutely white, like snow in the mountains. The girl nodded and raised her hands. A gray aura surrounded her and surrounded everyone, even Raven.

"And what about Mumbo Jumbo?" Raven asked, remembering the magician, who still lay on the ground, shaking.

"Don't worry, he won't go anywhere after what Ghost did to him!" Lorenzo said, and a wicked smile appeared on his face. Raven suddenly had a bad feeling about going back with these strangers, but she couldn't think too much about it as suddenly everything disappeared. In the next moment all of them were standing in some sort of a large room. The ceiling was filled with lights, so everything was clearly seen. The room was completely made of metal: the floor, the ceiling and the walls as well.

"Aaah, finally! Home, sweet home!" Lorenzo said and walked to a door. He opened it with ease, and although the door was also made of metal it opened without a sound. The others exited the room and only Raven and Minerva were left inside.

"So this is your base?" Raven asked looking around the room.

"Yes. This is the hangar and the garage." Minerva said and wanted to exit the room as well, but Raven didn't move.

"Where are we exactly?" Raven asked. Minerva turned around and seemed to be confused.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"What city is this? I haven't seen any sign, so I don't know where I am." Raven said. Minerva took off her helmet and smiled at the dark ex-Titan.

"This is Fall City. And our base is in the outskirts of the city. You know, safety reasons." the armored girl said. Raven's eyes widened. She had heard of this city, but hoped that she'd never go there. If Jump City was filled with criminals, then Fall City was the main lair of criminals all over the world. Generally Fall City was considered to be the most dangerous place in the world. She had thought that no superhero would actually live there. And now she met an entire team of them.

"And what's your team's name?" Raven asked.

"We are the Guardians. We are the only superheroes in this town, so you can imagine how difficult it is to maintain at least some justice here." Minerva said. Then she nodded with her head, telling Raven to follow her. And Raven followed. Both of them exited the garage and walked down a long corridor. Raven wondered how was it possible to build this base, as everything was metal. But for the time being she decided not to think about it. Minerva sighed and Raven turned her attention to the leader.

"Unfortunately it is becoming increasingly difficult to fight the criminals here. They're too well organized and taking out one or two of their workers doesn't help. There are too many of them and we can't fight them openly." Minerva explained. Now Raven understood why had she never heard of the Guardians. In a city like this it would be suicide to admit fighting against evil and injustice.

"So, what do you do?" Raven asked.

"Well, we try to cripple their operations as much as we can. The criminal organizations here rely on shipments of goods coming into the harbor, so we usually assault some of these shipments. But it's not enough. You know, we have to live from something and there's no way of getting anything as a hero. So we had to…adapt new techniques to get the supplies we need." Minerva said.

"And what's that?" Raven asked, but the girl in armor didn't reply. Instead she stopped and opened a door on the left. Raven looked inside. The room was completely different from the rest of the base. Most noticeable difference was, that there were no metallic parts in it.

"This is your room. Hope you'll like it." Minerva said and Raven entered. She looked around the room and was amazed at how much it reminded her of her previous room in Titans Tower. It was gloomy, yet there was a lot of space within. On the right side of the room there was a huge pile of books. It seemed like someone wanted to get rid of them and threw them into a corner.

"Well, what do you think?" Minerva asked. Raven turned to the girl.

"It'll suffice." Raven answered in a monotonous voice and sat down on the large bed in the back of the room. It was soft, just like the one in the Tower. She laid down on it, and soon fell asleep. It was the first time in days she had slept in a bed. Minerva continued to look at her from the outside, and after some minutes left and closed the door.

_Some time later_

Raven woke up as she heard two voices arguing outside of her room. She couldn't really understand what were they saying, so she crept to the door and put her ear against it to better hear the arguing.

"Why the hell did we bring her here? We don't know anything about her, and we let her stay with us? I say we should've locked her in a cell! For all we know she might even have killed the Teen Titans!" Raven recognized the voice with the Spanish accent. It was Lorenzo.

"But Minerva said that she is to remain with us until the morning. AND, she must not come to any harm! Understand?" this other voice was strong, almost like roaring.

"Achilles." Raven whispered to herself.

"Hmph, fine! But don't be surprised if you wake up in the morning, lying in a pool of your own blood. This demon is dangerous! You can guard her, but I'll keep my pistol close. And if that…demon…or whatever that 'thing' is makes a wrong move, I'll shoot her without a second thought." Lorenzo said and soon quick steps were heard, walking away. Raven stood up and turned around.

"You don't trust him, do you?" a voice said and Raven almost jumped. The pile of a vase exploded in her room, a result of getting scared. A short girl, dressed in a white robe came to Raven from one of the shadows.

"Ghost! What are you doing here?" Raven asked as she recognized the white face. She was too surprised by the unexpected intrusion, that she forgot the fact that Ghost had entered her room without permission. She also didn't notice Ghost's kind and beautiful voice.

"Just checking, if you're okay. And I was curious as well. I haven't seen you since the action at night and we didn't really talk. Wanna talk?" Ghost said fast. Raven sighed. She was too tired to talk right now. She never had enjoyed talking with Starfire, and she thought that talking to this girl would be just as annoying.

"Not now. Leave, I need to rest." Raven said with a weak voice and walked back to her bed.

"Oh. Okay. I'm sorry for disturbing you. Goodbye." Ghost said. Raven turned around, but the girl was gone.

"And I thought I was creepy." Raven said to herself and went to sleep.

* * *

A/N: Well, that's all for today. Hope you enjoyed it. Reviews everyone! Please! Write me, tell me anything you think about this story. Thanks. 


End file.
